


Dance Lessons

by Fericita



Series: Dangerous Secrets 'Verse [3]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, Novel: Dangerous Secrets: The Story of Iduna and Agnarr - Mari Mancusi, dance lessons, dangerous secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:07:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27797419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: A story in the Dangerous Secrets verse, expanding on something Agnarr mentions in Chapter 28. Thanks @the-spaztic-fantastic for beta-ing and coming up with the term ”practice girl” and thanks to @jomiddlemarch for use of her sweet marten. And thanks @marimancusi for encouraging fan fiction about these two.
Relationships: Agnarr & Iduna (Disney), Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Series: Dangerous Secrets 'Verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033725
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

_Agnarr_

“How are you so bad at this?” I asked, but quietly, since the dance instructor was already annoyed at us ten minutes into the lesson. I spun her around and she wobbled a bit as her hand twirled in mine. “You can climb a tree quicker than a sweet marten!”

Iduna stomped on my toe again as I drew her close, my hand again at her waist and hers on my shoulder, our other hands extended in front of us in an awkwardly straight line, like they were trying to escape the ballroom but had to stay attached to the rest of us, trapped in this lesson. 

Iduna gave a half groan, half giggle. She sucked in her breath at the look of irritation the dance teacher shot at her and lifted herself on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. “That’s outside. And in clothes that are easier to move in.” She pulled at the bodice of her ballgown, one that Gerda had surprised her with this morning. “This dress is so wide I could be wearing snowshoes under here and you’d never know.”

“Oh, I’d know.” I whispered back. “Because you’d step on me hard enough to leave an imprint.”

The teacher stopped clapping a rhythm and began to use his walking stick to pound one on the floor. “ONE, two, three! ONE, two, three! Twirl and a-GAIN!”

Iduna stopped even trying to do the dance and twirled away from me, spinning like a leaf falling from a tree in autumn, her hair floating behind her and her eyes merry. She collided with a column and laughed. “Pardon me, good sir,” she said, bowing to it. I laughed and the teacher threw his cane on the floor.

“Sixteen and fourteen! You’re both acting like toddlers. I’ll not waste my time,” he said in the strange cadence he had, like he was counting out a dance with his very words. He swept out of the room and slammed the door shut behind him. 

I could hardly believe my luck. 

But then, good things always happened when I was with Iduna. 

She looked at me, her eyes wide. “Are we in trouble? Did I just get you in trouble?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m not worried. I think we learned enough.”

She walked over to me, lifting her voluminous skirts and kicking off her shoes. “I bet I could do better without these shoes on. Let’s try again. It will be easier without him yelling and trying to crack the floor.”

She hummed a melody under her breath and we returned our hands to the familiar positions, recreating the waltz. It was easier without the teacher yelling at us, even fun. Her waist under my hand felt warm and small and she was smiling. I wondered if she was enjoying it as much as I was, and lifted my hand to spin her around. When I spun her back towards me, we went too fast and she crashed against my chest.

We stopped for a moment, frozen in place. She wasn’t smiling anymore and instead was looking at me with a confused expression, like I had just changed the dance without her knowing. 

I felt a flutter in my chest and had a wild desire to tuck her hair behind her ear, to rub it between my fingers to see if it felt as smooth as it looked. 

She cleared her throat and stepped back. “I think we mastered that one. How about a new one?”

I shook my head, trying to clear away these new thoughts and feelings that were making it suddenly difficult to concentrate on what she was saying. “New dance? Do you know one?”

She clapped her hands and put her nose in the air. “The disrespect!” she shouted, imitating the cadence of the dance teacher perfectly. “I will teach you a new dance that only the very best dancers can perform!”

I laughed, the feelings that had risen just a moment ago gone as I again looked at my friend, certain she was about to make me laugh. “Let’s see then,” I said. “What’s it called?”

She drew herself up, back straight and hands raised above her head in an approximation of...antlers?

“It is called ‘the reindeer who has to pee really badly, but is stuck inside a fancy ballroom,’” she said, hopping from one foot to the other and ducking her head low. 

I laughed and copied her and we pranced around like the wild animals we wanted to be and I didn’t think a ball could ever be as much fun as we were having right then.


	2. Chapter 2

_Iduna_

I saw Agnarr less after I was living in the castle than I had when I was living in my cottage. Neither of us knew how to be just friends after months and months of being so much more, but we nodded awkwardly in the long corridors as we passed each other and made up reasons to leave the library or kitchens if we found ourselves there at the same time.

_It will be over soon_ , I told myself. 

Soon he would meet Runa and he’d marry her or some other princess. When I saw him married, a queen on his arm, then I would be able to move past this paralysis his love had cast over me. Like I was trapped in a mist of my own making.

Gerda suggested we practice and arranged for a violinist to come to the ballroom the night before the Vassar delegation was expected to arrive. My ballgown was getting some final alterations so I wore a simple dress, one that Agnarr had already seen me wear a million times before. 

Runa probably never wore the same dress twice. She probably never complained about ballgowns either, had probably never caused a dance teacher to quit in frustration out of hopelessness at the likelihood of imparting any knowledge.

The violinist started a waltz and Agnarr offered a slight bow, his hand extended to me. I took it and he gripped me firmly about the waist. I put my other hand lightly on his shoulder, even though I wanted to grip him tightly and bury my face into his chest. 

To be so close to him was torture. 

“I don’t want to do this,” he murmured, his mouth inches from my ear. For a moment I was crushed, thinking he meant dancing with me. But then he continued. “I don’t want to meet her. Not when-”

I cut him off. “It will be fine! It’s for the best!” I had to get him to stop talking. I couldn’t bear to hear him say he loved me. “Maybe she’ll be really nice!” I forced a smile, hoping the tears that were building in the corner of my eyes could be mistaken for bright merriment instead of sadness. “At the very least, she’ll be a better dance partner than me.”

“Not a chance,” he said. His hand lifted mine to spin me perfectly, effortlessly, and I thought of the last times our fingers were entwined, the two of us in my cottage, our bodies pressed together and no words spoken as we said goodbye.

"Give her a chance!" I said as the bile rose in my throat. “She could be your friend too. Your friend and queen.” I almost choked on the words. It was what I wanted to be. But this was all I could be. The practice girl. The girl who readied him for other girls, other women, more suitable. 

He shook his head and smiled. “No one can possibly be as good of a friend as you are to me, Iduna.” And just as the wild thought was rising in my throat to shout _I’m your enemy! I’m a terrible friend! I’ve been lying to you!_ he put a hand on his head and - was he making antlers? I smiled before I meant to and he laughed.

“Perhaps that should be the secret sign I give you to show that I need to be rescued. That I can’t take any more of the princely duties.” He reached for my hands again and we were dancing once more, matching the melody of the violin as it echoed across the empty ballroom. 

“Crown Prince in distress doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Damsel in Distress. Must not happen as often.”

Agnarr nodded, considering. “Must not have someone as wonderful as you to rescue them.”

He gripped me tighter at the waist and my breath caught, the familiar nearness of him too much.

“It's true. You have already rescued me,” he whispered.

“Agnarr. Stop. Please stop.” I stepped back from his arms, already missing their warmth and wondering if it would be the last time we touched and thinking of the first time we touched, when I had rescued him. But he couldn’t know that. And now he never would. I crossed my arms across my chest and rubbed at them with my hands.

He put his hands out, reaching for me, trying to calm me like I’d seen him try to calm a stray dog. Like I was a wild thing, unpredictable. “No, our friendship, not even what came next. Being your friend saved me and I don't know if I can stand to stop being your friend.”

“I don’t know if I can stand to keep being your friend,” I said, barely above a whisper. He looked at me with pain in his eyes and I was so used to comforting him when he looked that way that I took a step forward before I shook myself and stopped. 

The violinist stopped playing. “Another tune? Something more lively?”

Agnarr’s eyes were on mine and I didn’t know what secret sign to give him that would tell him what I wanted but what couldn’t be. “No thank you,” I called out. “I’m just leaving now.” 

I turned and left and was in the hallway before the tears started to fall. _It will be over soon_ , I told myself again. _You made a new start before. You can do it again._

But I wasn’t sure I believed it.


End file.
